Biking TIBET

5. Crossing Suge La Altitude 5,300m

Aug,24th : before Suge La (4,785m) -> Suge La (5,300m) -> before Dagshuka (4,075m)
Weather:Fine after snowstorm / Stay at tent

After 3 hours past we set out, we reached at around Altitude 5,000m. My partner Okuda was obviously breathing with difficulty and his posture nearly fell forward. He seemed to be a severe look and walking slowly. This was the first time I've ever seen him like suffering. He already made a circuit biking tour of Hokkaido courageously before 3 days we left Japan. He must be not recovery yet...

As for me, I couldn't afford to sing a song as usual. It was all I could do was to beat time with muttering one two one two each foot cycle. When I lost beat control, my breathing was disordered and it has affected to my legs. We drank filtered water to moisten our dried throat and eat chocolates to get energy on the way frequently.

Now there was no difference if we push up our bike like heavy tank or keep biking on the saddle. However, I kept biking to the mountain pass. More one hour and half later, I reached at the Suge La (5,300m) at last.


We were lucky because...
I was relieved reaching the pass in a moment. I saw the sky was overcastted little by little by deep-black nimbuses on the other side of the mountain. And the rainy sky looked as if it's going to reach us any minute now. The temperature dropped rapidly and wristwatch with sensor showed at 0 digree centigrade.

After a while Okuda arrived. Just as we were talking about from now on, we noticed a truck going up to the mountain. We were lucky because it is seldom or never we could see a car passing such a place.

I stopped the car standing middle of the road with waving hands. I dealt with fee in shortly and we got into the load-carrying platform of the truck. There were full of Tibetan people and their baggage already. The truck was starting roaring with full of people. It began to snow soon. There was no roof so that the people were covered face by hands or put on the blanket shutting out the cold.


A warmhearted treatment
We endured on the truck for three hours and we drove down altitude 4,000m. The snowstorm has been change to diagonally rain, and after a while cold rain changed to light rain. The truck was stopped and most of Tibetan people got off. I was at a loss we should get off here.

A man asked me, "Are you hungry?"
I said, "Yes!"
The man said, "Follow me..."

We were ushered into ordinary Tibetan house. We sat on the chair and warm ourselves at a stove there. Just then, we were served a hot butter tea and Thumpa.

This is the native food in Tibet. It is made from wheat was roasted first then grounded and it was knead with butter. The taste looked like flour made by grinding parched barley. I remembered eating it as snack time at childhood with sugar. But I realized it was tasteless without sugar. However, on the contrary I ate up one bowl of it. If I get used to it, maybe I feel it good, like Japanese rice or French bread...

Wall Paper